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Sushi Rolls

I’ve written about my maternal grandmother before. She’s the one with the adventurous palate who taught me not really how to make anything in particular, but more about throwing stuff together in the kitchen to see what happens; see what sticks. I learned that what sticks gets written down, what doesn’t stick just gets eaten because no one’s throwing away food around here! Sushi rolls are an exception. She did teach me how to make those. She would most often make “hand rolls” or temaki — the tapered kind that you just eat by chomping on it like an ice cream cone. That’s fun. But really, any way you roll it or eat it, the sushi rice is the key thing.

Sushi Rice

The sushi rice, once seasoned with rice vinegar, sugar, and salt, is called shari. I got that off Wikipedia. The rolled sushi that I make in this video is called makizushi. I got that off a Japanese restaurant menu. I learn things everywhere I go! Sushi refers to anything that is combined with shari . . . I’m pretty sure. Anyway, about that rice.

Traditionally, the sushi rice is washed until the water runs clear. This removes extra starch on the rice. The brand of rice I buy says in big letters “Washing not necessary” so I follow the rules and don’t wash it, thereby saving time and water. Give yours a rinse before cooking if you can’t find any directive against its necessity on the package.

Once the rice is cooked, you spread it out on a platter and add your seasoned rice vinegar a couple of spoonfuls at a time. Then gently fold the rice over with a wooden paddle or wooden spoon and spread it out again. Keep adding spoonfuls of vinegar and gently folding it in to the rice until it tastes good (about 3-4 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar per 2 cups of cooked sushi rice). It should taste good enough to eat all by itself. Durn good. Allow the rice to cool to room temperature before making the sushi rolls.

Nori

The seaweed sheet that wraps the sushi roll is called nori. It’s an algae that has been pressed and dried, then toasted, cut into rectangles, and delivered to your neighborhood Asian market. If you pay attention, you’ll notice once side of the nori is slightly smoother and shinier than the other. Make sure you put the smoother side down, applying the rice to the rougher side.

Sushi Fillings

Besides rice, pretty much anything you can think of, you can put into a sushi roll. Typically, people think of raw fish when the word “sushi” comes up. If you want to use raw seafood, be sure to use only fish labeled “sushi-grade” to lessen the risk of gettin’ a parasite in yo tummy. While “sushi grade” is not an FDA term, the FDA does have a guideline for seafood that is to be consumed raw, called the “parasite destruction guarantee”. Parasites are kiled by both cooking and freezing. Parasite destruction can be assured by wither freezing fish for 7 days at -4 degrees F or below or by flash-freezing to -31 degrees F or below for 15 hours. Freezing will not kill bacteria.

One thing this means, then, is that no “sushi grade” fish is ever (nor should be) technically “fresh” because it has all been at one point frozen. Extrapolating, then, because almost all fish you buy has been shipped and stored frozen before being thawed out behind the fish counter, you could theoretically use almost anything …? Nah. Probably shouldn’t. Sushi grade fish has also been filleted a certain way and in Japan at least, must meet specific requirements for fat content and flavor quality, among other things.

With all fillings, cut them neatly into long strips. If possible, make each strip long enough to cover the length of the nori. If not, you will lay strips of filling end-to-end to stretch across. For most rolls, the rice should make up about half the filling, with the other ingredients making up the other half. So, the ratio of rice:other stuff is 1:1.

Bamboo Mat

This little gadget, called a makisu, is cheap and easy to find at an Asian grocery (maybe even a larger upscale grocery) and can help you make tighter sushi rolls. You wouldn’t use this to make hand rolls, just the makizushi. Even then, it is possible to roll them by hand without the mat so if you’re just starting to experiment, you may want to try it by hand first before buying a makisu that you only use once and then for the next hundred years, it just sits in your utensil drawer and mocks you every time you need to get the can opener because it’s Campbell’s chicken again for dinner instead of fancy sushi rolls.

Instructions

Rinse the rice if you need to (see notes above) and combine in a pot with the water. Cover. Bring to boil. Reduce to simmer for 20 minutes. At 20 minutes, turn off the heat, but allow the rice to sit in the pot 5 minutes longer.

Meanwhile, dissolve the sugar and salt in the vinegar.

When the rice is done, spread onto a platter and mix in the vinegar (see above text for tips, or watch the video!). Allow to cool to room temperature.

Place a sheet of nori smooth side down, longer edge facing you.

Spread 1/2 cup rice over the nori, leaving a 1″ border along the top. Wet your fingertips to aid in spreading the rice without sticking to your hands.

Arrange fillings in a line down the center of the rice.

Roll up tightly.

Wet the 1″ nori border lightly with water and finish rolling. Set aside, seam side down while you make the rest.

Cut each roll into 8 pieces, using a sharp knife and wiping it with a wet towel between each slice.

12 Comments

Hilah, the thing is that you take everything that seems a little too intimidating, and you make it look PERFECTLY DOABLE. Thank you for that.
My boyfriend’s been wanting to make sushi at home for a while now and I’ve always been too scared. But I think we’ll try it, now. Thanks.

It is definitely appropriate to eat sushi with your fingers. Only sashimi (the raw fish without the rice) has to be eaten with chopsticks. A big no-no is dipping the rice side into the shoyu (soy sauce). That makes the rice come apart.

There are more ways to assemble sushi. You’ve shown handrolls and maki sushi on your page. You can make big honkin’ ones called futomaki. The trouble is that you’re supposed to eat maki in one bite, so with futomaki, you may look like a chipmunk hoarding acorns.

If you put the filling on top of the rice, it’s nigiri sushi. If you stuff the rice inside tofu skins, it’s inarizushi. If you take all the fillings and scatter them over a bowl of rice, that’s chirashi.

Lots of fillings. Lots of kinds of rice. Japanese rice also comes in brown — genmai — which is very tasty. ボナペティ(Bon appetit!)

Hi! I’m Japanese, and like all (or most) other Japanese people, we have a thing for sushi.
I tend to see that a lot of foreigners like a lot of wasabi on their sushi, and I find that very interesting.
We tend to be a little conservative with our wasabi… I guess?
Oh, and a good tip my mother always tells me is to never press down or flatten the sushi rice while laying down ingredients on the nori.
She tells me to just kind of softly lay down the rice, and that it’s okay not to have a lot of rice in there, because it kind of looks squeezed in and lessens the true flavor of the ingredients inside.
Also, yes, it is acceptable to eat sushi with your hands. (Except not in formal situations- like at a fancy restaurant!)
Anyway, I really enjoyed the recipe! Hope this helps you in some way.

I make a sushi roll similar to this, with avocado, cucumber, and I put the pickled ginger inside, along with a wasabi mayonnaise. I got the recipe from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook. It’s been a hit at parties. I always get the comment, “You made this?”

I’m pregnant so I can’t go out and eat sushi, I was told not even to go to sushi restaurants because even vegetable rolls could be cross contaminated. The other day I had a really bad craving for sushi, thanks to your video, I made vegetable sushi at home and it came out really good. So Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.